Wildwood Weed
Legalization of cannabis in Canada next July. Bloody Manitoba government won’t let us grow our own. Greedy politicians.
The name of this song is ‘The Wildwood Flower’
Now ‘The Wildwood Flower’ is an old country classic
It gained a whole new popularity
The song isn’t any more popular
But the flower is doin’ real good
The wildwood flower grew wild on the farm
And we never knowed what it was called
Some said it was a flower and some said it was weed
I didn’t gave it much thought…
One day I was out there talking to my brother
Reached down for a weed to chew on
Things got fuzzy and things got blurry
And then everything was gone
I Didn’t know what happened
But I knew it beat the hell out of sniffin’ burlap
I come to and my brother was there
And he said, ‘What’s wrong with your eyes?’
I said, ‘I don’t know, I was chewing on a weed’
He said, ‘Let me give it a try’
We spent the rest of that day and most of that night
Trying to find my brother, Bill
Caught up with him ’bout six o’clock the next mornin’
Naked, swinging on the windmill
He said he flew up there
I had to fly up and get him down
He was about half crazy
The very next day we picked a bunch of them weeds
And put ’em in the sun to dry
Then we mashed ’em up and we cleaned ’em all
And put ’em in the corncob pipe
Smokin’ them wildwood flowers got to be a habit
We didn’t see no harm
We thought it was kind of handy
Take a trip and never leave the farm
A big ol’ puff on the wildwood weed
Next thing you know
We’s just wandering behind the little animals
All good things gotta come to an end
And it’s the same with the wildwood weed
One day this feller from Washington come by
And he spied us and he turned white as a sheet
And he dug and he burned
And he burned and he dug
And he killed all our cute little weeds
Then he drove away
We just smiled and waved
Sittin’ there on that sack of seeds
Y’all come back now, ya hear
“Linus and Lucy,” Los Straightjackets version of “Peanuts” theme song
Dangerous Minds
The luchador-masked garage/surf band Los Straitjackets have been a popular live act for over 20 years, thanks to tight musicianship and energetic, theatrical stage shows. They’re known for sharing stages with other showy, dynamic performers like the burleque troupe The Pontani Sisters, but lately they’ve begun working with someone altogether different—Nick Lowe, the great songwriter and producer who lived the transition from pub rock to New Wave and beyond. Los Straitjackets were a feature of Lowe’s Quality Holiday Revue tour last year, and will be again this year.
That album will contain Los Straitjackets’ version of the immortal Vince Guaraldi number “Linus and Lucky,” famous as the theme music from the Peanuts
Los Straitjackets are hardly strangers to holiday music—in the late ‘90s, a Straitjackets Christmas appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien was an annual tradition, and in 2002 they released ‘Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets
We listen to all different kinds of instrumental music and always loved the Vince Guaraldi score for A Charlie Brown Christmas. One of the discoveries working on “Linus and Lucy” was finding out the opening riff sounds exactly like the opening riff in “You Really Got Me by The Kinks” when you rock it up. You would never think of those two songs being similar! The best thing about covering this song is seeing everybody doing the Peanuts dances when we play it.
–
Major Gunboat Diplomacy
A show of force aimed directly at that lunatic dictator in North Korea.
Three U.S. Navy carrier strike groups are operated alongside one another in the Western Pacific through November 14th, 2017. The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), USS Nimitz (CVN-68), and the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), along with the Japanese helicopter carrier Ise and its destroyer escorts, are training to work cooperatively as a single punishing force.
The “Gates of Hell”
The Darvaza gas crater (Turkmen: Jähennem derwezesi, Җәхеннем дервезеси), known locally as the “Door to Hell” or ”Gates of Hell”, is a natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan, that collapsed into an underground cavern, becoming a natural gas crater. Geologists set it on fire to prevent the spread of methane gas, and it has been burning continuously since 1971. The diameter of the crater is 69 metres (226 ft), and its depth is 30 metres (98 ft).
The crater is a popular tourist attraction. Since 2009, 50,000 tourists have visited the site. The gas crater has a total area of 5,350 m2. The surrounding area is also popular for wild desert camping.
The gas crater is located near the village of Derweze, also known as Darzava. It is in the middle of the Karakum Desert, about 260 kilometres (160 mi) north of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. The gas reserve found here is one of the largest in the world. The name “Door to Hell” was given to the field by the locals, referring to the fire, boiling mud, and orange flames in the large crater, which has a diameter of 70 metres (230 ft). The hot spots range over an area with a width of 60 metres (200 ft) and to a depth of about 20 metres (66 ft).
According to Turkmen geologist Anatoly Bushmakin, the site was identified by Soviet engineers in 1971. It was originally thought to be a substantial oil field site. The engineers set up a drilling rig and operations to assess the quantity of oil available at the site. Soon after the preliminary survey found a natural gas pocket, the ground beneath the drilling rig and camp collapsed into a wide crater and was buried.
Expecting dangerous releases of poisonous gases from the cavern into nearby towns, the engineers thought it best to burn the gas off. It was estimated that the gas would burn out within a few weeks, but it has instead continued to burn for more than four decades.
In April 2010, the president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, visited the site and ordered that the hole should be closed. In 2013, he declared the part of the Karakum Desert with the crater a nature reserve.
The crater was featured in a Die Trying episode titled “Crater of Fire”. Explorer George Kourounis became the first person to ever set foot at the bottom, gathering samples of extremophile microorganisms. The episode was broadcast on the National Geographic Channel on July 16, 2014.
Camping on the edge of the “Gates of Hell”
Winnipeg Jets play by play guy sounds like Marvin the Martian
Dennis Beyak is a wily old hockey broadcaster who does the play by play for the Jets. He has been around since before the invention of the jet engine. The old dog is likely on his last few laps around the NHL.
One thing about the guy is that he sounds like ‘Marvin the Martian’ from Merry Melodies cartoons fame. Beyak does not have a deep man’s man voice, but rather a high pitched squawk. Check it out.
Rockin Batman theme by Link Wray and his Raymen
Fred Lincoln “Link” Wray Jr (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and vocalist who first came to popularity in the late 1950s.
Building on the overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound of early electric blues records, his 1958 instrumental hit “Rumble” by Link Wray and his Ray Men invented “the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists”,making possible “punk and heavy rock”. Rolling Stone placed Wray at number 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 he was announced as a nominee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The MarkoZen Blog 